Truth as the Pathway to Grace

Mike Leake

photo-1514906689926-25ba6dcb584bThere is a section in C.S. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces that is captivating to me. The narrator is allowed to stand before the gods and give her complaint. It’s the Job-like moment that never was. The gist of her complaint isn’t what draws me in, it’s this statement:

The complaint was the answer. To have heard myself making it was to be answered. Lightly men talk of saying what they mean. Often when he was teaching me to write in Greek the Fox would say, “Child, to say the very thing you really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or less or other than what you really mean; that’s the whole art and joy of words.” A glib saying. When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the center of your soul for years, which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you’ll not talk about joy of words. I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces? (Till We Have Faces, 138)

What the narrator is saying, if I’m reading correctly, is that there is something deep within us that is freeing to get out. It’s perhaps the core of our complaint. A word that needs to be dug out of us. And until we are able to articulate this truth we’re all just babbling about searching for words.

What I believe Lewis is getting at here is that moment when we stand before the Lord and we’re fully known and we see the Lord as He is. That moment will change us eternally. We’ll have a face on that day. (1 John 3:2).

For Lewis it was in this encounter with the Lord, naked as we really are, giving the core of our ache and our complaint, that we’re met with the deepest of grace. All of our questions, now profoundly articulated, melt away…

I ended my first book with the words no answer. I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice? Only words, words; to be led out to battle against other words. Long did I hate you, long did I fear you. I might — (144)

I was thinking of Lewis’ while reflecting upon John 1. Jesus is full of grace and truth. What if these two, grace and truth, are far more tied together than we think? You’ve heard of folks who major on truth but are ungracious, or folks who spout grace and don’t have an ounce of the backbone of truth. I think you could argue that neither have a firm grasp on grace or truth.

But what if the reason Jesus wants us to walk in truth is because he wants to meet us there with grace? What if those things which you are hiding and covering and trying to escape are actually avenues of grace? What if the light is shining on all those painful and shameful areas because the Lord wants to shower them and heal them with His grace?

Will we believe Him enough to shine the light? 

What if we’re not going to actually see things as they are until we put on gracious spectacles? What if you cannot walk in truth unless you have grace as your starting point? What if truth matters because grace matters?

Will we believe Him enough to dive into grace?

It’s pretty scary to be laid bare like this. But it’s what awaits us…if we’ll ever have faces we must shed our fake ones.

Hands came from behind me and tore off my veil — after it, every rag I had on. The old crone with her Ungit face stood naked before those countless gazers. No thread to cover me, no bowl in my hand to hold the water of death; only my book. (136) 

Thankfully this is only the means to our being clothed in the righteousness of Christ:

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. (Isaiah 61:10)

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Of Dread and Desire

Mike Leake

photo-1455368109333-ebc686ad6c58What if I told you that both your deepest desire and your greatest fear will both come upon you?

That’s what Proverbs 10:24 seems to be saying:

      What the wicked dreads will come upon him,
       but the desire of the righteous will be granted.

There are many objects and situations we could supply for “dread”. Is it death? Loneliness? Broken relationships? Financial ruin? A zombie attack? But ultimately we know that what is really dreaded is the judgment of God. John Kitchen says it well:

The first, and most fundamental, consequence of sin to human emotions was the introduction of fear (Gen. 3:10). While such fear is often redirected and remains unidentified, it nevertheless lingers (Heb. 2:15). There is, in every human, ‘a certain terrifying expectation of judgment’ (Heb. 10:27). This, Solomon assures us, will eventually befall the wicked. True, the wicked often prosper for a time (Ps. 73:3ff). This may cause the righteous to nearly stumble (Ps. 73:1–2), but ‘Then I perceived their end. How they are destroyed in a moment! They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors!’ (Ps. 73:17b–19).

Kitchen, J. A. (2006). Proverbs: A Mentor Commentary (p. 232). Fearn, Ross-shire, Great Britain: Mentor.

What this Proverb is telling us is that even though “doing wrong is like a joke to a fool” (10:23) what is really underneath is a life built upon avoidance. There is a great dread which is the governing structure of the life of the wicked. And no matter how creative we are, nor how successful we are in crafting fig leaves and bushes to hide us, ultimately that which we dread—the gaze of God—will come upon us in full force.

But the other side of this is true as well. The desire of the righteous—God Himself—will be granted. If you live your life trying to avoid the judgment of God, you’ll be judged. If you live your life pursuing the pleasure of God, you’ll receive it. This is amazing news. These words of Charles Bridges serve as great worship fuel:

But if the fear of the wicked—so also will the desire of the righteous—be fully realized. As the one cannot fear anything so bad, so the other cannot desire anything so good, as what is really in store for them. Desires bounded by the will and centered in the enjoyment, of God, will be granted to their utmost extent. God did not raise them to be our torment, but our rest.” Bridges, 106

Did you catch that? You cannot dream something bigger than what God has in store for you. Your Father delights to give you this kingdom (Luke 12:32).

Dread really isn’t a word that should be in the Christian vocabulary. Don’t hear that as a rebuke for those of us who have seasons of anguish, or who have time when dread feels more powerful than hope. That statement isn’t meant as a rebuke, it’s meant to say it is wonderfully good news that even though we might battle the dread of night that isn’t our lot.

In Christ your desire will be fulfilled, your dread will not. That which is the greatest thing to dread—and from which all other dread flows, the wrath of God—has been fully swallowed up by our Savior. You will not taste one ounce of what our guilt deserves. Therefore, we can live in delight and desire instead of days of dread.

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What Does It Mean That People Want Deeper Bible Study?

Mike Leake

photo-1456513080510-7bf3a84b82f8“We want deeper Bible study.”

Ever hear that one? If you have ever surveyed your church about Bible study and small group options I almost guarantee you have heard those words. While community is still the number one desire for many when it comes to groups, recent surveys have shown that right on its heels is the desire for “going deeper”.

And you know how we respond to this desire?

We give them studies that go “deeper in the Word”. And what we mean by that is that we rub the nerd sauce on even thicker. We bust our our interlinear. We start talking root words and we do far reaching word studies. Or we go the route of biblical theology and trace a theme throughout the story of the Bible. These are all great practices…but it doesn’t seem to scratch that itch.

One of two things seems to happen. What often happens is that nobody shows up for our super deep Bible study. Or they show up and they get bored and they drop out. And so we conclude that they didn’t actually want deeper Bible study. Or, secondly, people do show up, they devour the Bible study, they really learn their Bibles, they get deeply educated but something is still missing. Sometimes it seems as if knowledge isn’t translating into lifestyle. But more often than not, what is happening is that these folks who are devouring the word studies are still asking for something deeper.

This is because when people say they want deeper Bible study they do not mean they want to go deeper into the Word but what they are really desiring (and what I believe the Spirit of God is prompting) is for the Word to go deeper into them. This is what they mean when they say that but we’ve often heard this request the wrong way.

I suppose some you could read this as if I’m saying a deep dive on the meaning of the Bible isn’t necessary. But that’s most certainly not my point. Such a deep dive is a must in order to actually have the word applied to the deep recesses of your heart. This is not a call to go back to the unhelpful small group discussions centered around “what does this verse mean to you”. But do notice Hebrews 4:12.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Notice what is happening here in this verse. The Bible is not a passive instrument which we dissect. You don’t go deep into the Word. The Word goes deep into you. That is what Hebrews is saying. God’s Word will search you out into the depth of your being. It goes deep.

I’m convinced that sometimes our “deep Bible study” is actually a smoke screen to avoid the real deep work of the Spirit. We can puff ourselves up with knowledge and pride ourselves on “knowing truth” but in reality our deep dive is nothing more than learning to use bigger gongs for our clanging cymbals.

What this all means is that we do need to labor to learn what the Word of God means. We absolutely must. We cannot cut corners of interpretation because to do so will mean that the medicine applied to our souls will be diluted. But we must never be satisfied as if that is the end of our labors.

The Spirit of God intends to use the Word of God to go deep into our hearts. We have to learn to ask tough questions. We must learn how to apply the gospel to those deepest and darkest parts of our stories of shame and sin and even victory. That is what people are crying out for when they say, “I want deeper Bible study”. They don’t mean word studies. They mean a different kind of deeper.

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Truth Matters Again, So Why Isn’t the Church Leading?

Mike Leake

photo-1585691470630-7788b6c2ed5eMuch is made in our day about “truth” or at least “truthiness”. There are conspiracy theories, discernment blogs, fake news, censorship, and a host of other things centered around this fundamental question, “What is true?”

It’s shocking, really, because about 10 years ago the church wrestled with how to minister in a “post-truth” world where postmodernism threatened us with a narrative of “what’s true for you is true for you, and what’s true for me is true for me.” But the emptiness of this philosophy was unsustainable and now we’ve moved into this strange place where truth matters but long ago we abandoned our anchor.

One would think, then, that the evangelicalism which was preparing itself for a post-truth world would be in a great position to lead the charge into all truth. But sadly, it seems evangelicalism is just as at home with conspiracy theories as those who were supposed to have abandoned truth all together. Why is this?

I would argue that the issue here is two-fold. One, we long ago abandoned the reason for truth. Secondly, we were drawn away by the glint of a sword from another kingdom.

“Why does truth matter”?

I’m a child of the Southern Baptist conservative resurgence. I know that I owe a great deal to that battle for the truth. I’ve also become somewhat of a student of that generation and that battle. I’ve poured over books on this battle for the Bible—this Truth in Crisis. Over and over again I read statements about the importance of standing upon truth. But something is often missing….why?

I’ve asked that question in my reading through that period of our history. Some rightly argue that a society built on an untruth will crumble. We need truth to thrive as a culture. That’s not only self-preservation but it’s neighbor love. Others argue from statistics that liberalism kills churches if you want your church to grow then make it conservative. 

Many will argue that truth is the means for us to know God. God is a God of truth and to rightly know him, you need to relate to Him in truthfulness. It is the truth of the gospel which helps us grow as well as the foundation from which we combat evil.

I do not necessarily disagree with any of these as motivations for holding fast to the truth. But there is something which I often see missing in these discussions; namely, that we pursue truth because God delights in truth. Delights. He rejoices in the truth. Walking in truth makes the heart of the father glad.

Here is why that matters. Our battle for truth can easily devolve into a utilitarian means to an end, rather than as a labor of love. Our adherence to the truth can be a way to seek to control God—to make God indebted to us because of our faithfulness. I find this sentence from Tim Keller to be quite searching:

“If, like the elder brother, you seek to control God through your obedience, then all your morality is just a way to use God to make him give you the things in life you really want.” –Keller, 39

What happens in our hearts when a church around the corner that isn’t nearly as dedicated to the truth as you begins to grow in baptisms, discipleship groups, missions, etc. whilst your truth-loving church seems to shrink? Do we just assume that this is another mark of our culture turning away from wanting to hear truth? Do we chalk it up to ear-tickling? Do we tunnel back into a dreary ‘faithfulness’ and somehow find ways to divert the anger we feel towards God for not growing our churches similarly?

Let’s be honest here. The anger we so often feel towards God—and others—is because we followed the plan and it didn’t work out. And when we come to this spot we’ve only got a few options. We can blame God for his unfaithfulness to us—but that never works out. We can dig in deeper and preach the truth even louder—somehow that seems to only create angrier congregations. Or we can assume that the problem must be some Achan among us and we expend our energies on rooting out these remaining “liberals” so we can proceed into the Promised Land.

And it’s often in these moments of discouragement where we are most prone to be enamored by the glint of another sword.

Soldiers in a war

Achan’s don’t come out of the woodwork easily. Nor are godless kingdoms who flaunt untruth going to easily give up their cultural stranglehold. But if the blessing of God is contingent upon our adherence to the truth of God then if we want God’s blessings we better become warriors for truth. We must drive out the Achan’s. We must have our culture bow a knee to biblical truth. Our national joy is dependent upon it.

That’s a shiny sword. And it even sounds biblical. Most godless cults do upon first glance. But do you see what has happened? We’ve exchanged the truth of God for a lie and called it a battle for truth. But at it’s foundation our utilitarian fight for truth is really no different than the great exchange of Romans 1, because it’s built upon creaturely self-delight and not Godward-delight.

This is why you’ll see those passionate about truth engaging in vitriolic campaigns to drive out an Achan. And this is why you’ll see conservative evangelicals reject consist pro-life principles in order to ensure a perceived cultural victory. The “battle for truth” is all that matters…and it doesn’t matter if it’s actually true. Grabbing hold of the sword of a culture war gave us permission to slay all rivals and gave us confidence that we’d always be on the right side—even if we aren’t. After all, can you really go wrong if you’re “fighting for God?”

I would argue that what we’ve really slain is truth itself. Many fundamentalist have actually become quite liberal, because they are no longer measuring claims by the truth of the Bible but rather orthodoxy is now defined by adherence to the movement itself.

And this is why evangelicals are leading the charge in embracing conspiracy theories, angry discernment blogs, and even its own brand of cancel culture. In our efforts to fight for the truth we never learned how to delight in truth. Truth is fundamentally relational. We missed that. And because of this, we didn’t notice that it’s not actually the truth we’re fighting for anymore. We’ve picked up the sword from another kingdom.

Truth still doesn’t matter.

Unless of course you want to join me in delighting in truth as we learn again how to tell a better story.

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